Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

The top cop in a California town that has become a poster child for a well-intentioned medical-marijuana law gone wrong has some advice for Colorado legislators.

"Make your laws as clear as you can, so that your executive and judicial branches of government can do their jobs as they are intended to," said Randy Mendosa, chief of police in Arcata, Calif.

The northern California town of 17,000 drew national attention in 2008 when a boom in medical-marijuana growing spawned serious public-safety concerns and siphoned away affordable housing as homes were rented for pot cultivation operations.

Colorado has its work cut out for it.

The state has few regulations for the burgeoning medical-marijuana industry, which has forced befuddled municipalities to enact a patchwork of moratoriums and outright bans as they wait for lawmakers to take up the issue in January.